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Nations threaten Syria with sanctions
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:08 If Syria does not fully cooperate with the investigation, the draft says the
council intends to consider "further measures," including sanctions, "to ensure
compliance by Syria."
In an appearance before the council earlier Tuesday, Mehlis urged Syria to
help "fill in the gaps" about who orchestrated the car bombing that killed
Hariri and 20 other people in Beirut.
"I cannot send 500 investigators, which I do not have, to Syria to look for
documents because I do not know where I would find them," he told reporters
after emerging from the council meeting. "It would be a good idea if the Syrian
authorities made an extra effort by themselves."
France's Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said: "We should not tolerate
anything short of full cooperation."
The Security Council could hold a meeting Monday, attended by the 15 members'
foreign ministers, to adopt the resolution, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.
Diplomats say the presence of the foreign ministers would give the resolution
added weight and increase pressure on Syria.
United Nations (UN) International Independent
Investigation Commissioner Detlev Mehlis (L) hands a report detailing the
investigation into the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik
al-Hariri to Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York, October 20, 2005.
[Reuters/file] | Syria has called Mehlis' report biased, politicized and an American plot to
take over the region, and is likely to oppose the new draft resolution. Syrian
officials and Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, deny they were
involved in Hariri's assassination and have insisted they have cooperated fully
with Mehlis' probe.
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad told the council on Tuesday that every
paragraph in the Mehlis report deserved to be refuted. He criticized Mehlis for
accusing Syria before the end of the investigation.
The commission "should not have pointed the finger or cast doubt on anybody,"
he said. Syria "has cooperated faithfully and sincerely" and will continue to do
so, he said.
Under the draft's provisions, Syria would also be required to renounce
terrorism and "commit itself definitively to cease all support for all forms of
terrorist action and all assistance to terrorist groups and to demonstrate this
undertaking through concrete actions."
Mehlis has received an extension of his mandate until Dec. 15, which he told
the council offers "yet another opportunity for the Syrian authorities to show
greater and meaningful cooperation."
He said Syria has agreed to provide the autopsy report of Syrian Interior
Minister Ghazi Kenaan, who was questioned by investigators and purportedly
committed suicide in his office on Oct. 12. Kenaan effectively controlled the
Lebanese government for 20 years as Syria's intelligence chief.
Syria said Kenaan committed suicide, but there have been allegations he may
have been killed in an attempted cover-up of Syrian involvement in Hariri's
killing.
Mehlis also requested stepped up security for his team of 30 investigators
from 17 countries.
"The commission has received a number of threats which were deemed, in the
assessment of our security personnel, to be credible," he
said.
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